


when next we meet

by halcyonskies



Series: OTP Challenge [25]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alien Castiel, Celestial Castiel, Heartache, Hopeful Ending, Human Dean, M/M, Sad, kind of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-30 01:03:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8512780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halcyonskies/pseuds/halcyonskies
Summary: Castiel comes from a place Dean has trouble identifying, exactly - another world, certainly, but it isn't a different planet. Technically, he's just from a different plane altogether, whatever that means. All Dean knows is that he doesn't want Cas to go.





	

**Author's Note:**

> 25th Challenge - Saying Goodbye
> 
> whew!
> 
> another series completed! i loved writing (most) of these, and i definitely love you guys for liking them! thanks so so much to everyone for reading and leaving lovely comments - you have no idea how much you're appreciated!
> 
> as always, you can find me [here!](http://heytherehalcyonskies.tumblr.com) feel free to drop a request or prompt if you like!

“I want you to know–”

“Cas, don’t.”

“I want you to know that I love you.”

Wisps of light seemed to drip from the sky onto Castiel’s shoulders, into his hair, creating the illusion of stardust shimmering on his skin. It almost hurt to look at him.

It was beautiful, and Dean hated it. 

“Why’d you have to go and say that?” he spat. He could feel the heat of his anger simmering under his skin, could feel how it was making his fingers tremble. Dean wanted to do something reckless then, something to make Cas hurt, something to make him understand what he was doing to Dean. But he was too angry, too desperate to find something that might make Cas stay. 

“Because it’s true,” Cas replied simply. He was calm, so infuriatingly calm, but his eyes were sad. They were too deep to fathom, his eyes, too blue and too  _ different.  _ Everything about him was different, from his symbol-streaked skin to the hulking appendages rising up from behind his shoulders. 

“Maybe I don’t want to hear it, Cas.” Dean swallowed until the tightness in his throat eased, until he could get a breath without choking on it. “Maybe I don’t give a shit about what you have to say.”

Cas shrugged, and the feathers at his back shifted like smoke. “Maybe you don’t. But this is what needs to be said. I love you, Dean Winchester. I didn’t think such a thing was possible, but there it is. I love you.”

Dean wanted to close his ears to it, to the earnestness in Cas’ voice and the emotion behind every word. But he couldn’t. He could only stand there and let it wash over him, a wave he couldn’t avoid, sweeping away his rage and his panic until he felt as empty as a shell. A long time ago, all he’d wanted was for Cas to say those very words to him. Actually hearing them wasn’t as warm and sweet as he’d imagined. 

“I love you too,” he croaked. The words felt like they’d been ripped out of his mouth. There was no joy in them. 

“I don’t want to go, Dean.” Here, the placid facade seemed to waver. A tear streaked down Cas’ cheek. His face creased as if with pain. “They’re pulling me back, calling me away.”

“Can’t you ignore them?” Dean felt as small as a child, having to ask. He knew from the grim expression on Cas’ face and the dread in his own heart that the plea was foolish. 

“If I knew how, I would try. But you can’t ignore the Dominions. When they want you, you go.” 

He’d feared the light would burn him if he tried to touch, but Dean couldn’t hold himself back any longer. He leaned forward into Cas’ space, breathed the air that puffed from his lips. When they kissed, it was wild and tender at the same time. Dean wanted to brand the feeling of Cas’ feathers into his skin, wanted to have some physical memory of this sense that he was being completely enveloped.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back,” Cas whispered against his lips, against his cheek, against his neck. “I know that I’ll try. But . . .”

Dean chuckled; the lack of mirth dried it up almost before it could get out of his mouth. “By the time you get back, I’ll be old. You won’t want me then.”

Cas’ annoyance was almost tangible, crackling over Dean’s skin like sparks from a fire. “Old bones and wrinkled skin mean nothing to me, Dean. As long you are this man in my arms, I’ll want you.”

Dean didn’t really know what to say in the face of such guilelessness, so he remained silent. It was better to feel anyway, better to absorb everything about this moment that he could without having to think of words to say. 

“Dean, I really have to go,” Cas eventually whispered, seconds or maybe years later. For a moment, he held onto Dean so tightly it hurt. He pressed one more kiss to Dean’s lips, warm and lingering. Then he stepped back.

“I’m gonna be waiting.” Dean put heat in the words, hardened his expression so Cas would know he wasn’t fooling around. “So you better get back to me someday. I’m gonna be pissed if the next time I see you is beyond the grave.”

“Would that I never had to endure your scorn,” Cas teased, something like adoration overcoming his face alongside the humor. “I’ll find you again, Dean. Wherever you are, I’ll find you.”

The light swelled; Dean’s eyes watered, and when he blinked, Cas was gone – back to Neverland or Oz or wherever the hell he actually hailed from. For a moment Dean felt so lonely that he couldn’t breathe. Even before he’d known that Cas wasn’t human, something about him had felt otherworldly – he’d filled up the room like something ethereal, filled up Dean’s heart until it couldn’t remember what life was like before him. The absence of him was . . . gutting.

Then he settled. The pounding of his heart slowed, and his eyes dried. Something burgeoned underneath his ribs, warm and thick as honey. It was almost like peace, almost like contentment. Whether it was Cas’ doing or just his own acceptance of what was to come, Dean was thankful for the change. 

“You better get back to me,” Dean repeated to the soft-lit sky.

And he left.


End file.
